Responses of Hail and Storm Days to Climate Change in the Tibetan Plateau
Abstract
There is increasing concern that local severe storm occurrence may be changing as
a result of climate change. The Tibetan Plateau (TP), as one of the world’s most sensitive
areas to climate change, became significantly warmer during recent decades. Since
1960 (1980), storm (hail) days have been decreasing by 6.2%/decade (18.3%/decade)
in the region. However, what cause the frequency changes of storm and hail in the
TP is largely unknown. Based on 53-year continuous weather records at 48 TP stations
and reanalysis data, we show here for the first time that the consistent decline of
storm days is strongly related to a drier mid-troposphere since 1960. Further analysis
demonstrated that fewer hail days are driven by an elevation of the melting level
(thermodynamically) and a weaker wind shear (dynamically) in a warming climate. These
results imply that less storm and hail may occur over TP when climate warms.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16718Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1029/2018GL077069Publication Info
Zou, Tian; Zhang, Qinghong; Li, WENHONG; & Li, Jihong (n.d.). Responses of Hail and Storm Days to Climate Change in the Tibetan Plateau. Geophysical Research Letters. 10.1029/2018GL077069. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16718.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Wenhong Li
Associate Professor of Climate
Dr. Li's research interests focus primarily on climate dynamics, land-atmosphere interaction,
hydroclimatology, and climate modeling. Her current research is to understand how
the hydrological cycle changes in the current and future climate and their impacts
on the ecosystems, subtropical high variability and change, unforced global temperature variability,
and climate and health issues.

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